Penn and Navy Dominate Intercollegiate Doubles

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The fortieth-annual U.S. Intercollegiate Squash Doubles Championships, presented by the U.S. Jesters Club, as Navy and Penn swept up the titles Sunday, October 6. Philadelphia Cricket Club hosted the tournament, which was originally started in 1942.

Twenty-four teams came from six universities: Brown, Columbia, Drexel, Fordham, Franklin & Marshall and the U.S. Naval Academy.

Like in recent years, F&M v. Navy was a common theme in the 2019 men’s draw. In one quarterfinal match, F&M’s Matthew Dukarm & Boden Polikoff squandered match balls in the fourth game but came back to win 15-13 in the fifth over Navy’s Owen Davis & Gus Prager. The finals were also a Midshipmen v. Diplomats tussle. Navy’s Michael Kacergis & Jonathan Lentz survived a barnburner against F&M’s Sanjay Jeeva & Shamseldeen Abbas, coming back from a 2-0 deficit to win in five games: 13-15, 9-15, 15-11, 15-9, 15-10.

For Lentz it was sweet vindication after losing in the final last year. For Kacergis it was a second-straight title and the third overall for his family (his brother Billy won the men’s doubles in 2015).

In the women’s doubles, Penn’s Lindsay Stanley & Jessica Davis won the four-team round robin. Their toughest match was against Isabella Kearns & Sara Syed of Brown: 15-12, 15-7, 13-15, 15-14. It was Stanley’s second intercollegiate doubles title, adding to all the doubles hardware in the Stanley home that her father Jeff has accrued.

In the seven-team mixed doubles draw, Penn also triumphed. Julia Buchholz & James Flynn won two tough four-game matches, including topping defending champion Sanja Jeeva and his partner Audrey Berling from F&M in the final.